Mapping and Review of Existing Due Diligence Frameworks
Ten reform initiatives. Four approaches. One question the sector still can’t answer: is due diligence actually getting lighter for the local organizations carrying the burden?
Every time an organization applies for funding — even when a funder approaches them first — staff often complete a fresh assessment on a different form, even though the information is largely the same. The result is duplicated effort, higher transaction costs, and delayed funding decisions. In an emergency, when local responders are already positioned to act, repeated due diligence checks can hold up partnerships for weeks.
In late 2025, a consortium led by World Vision UK — with Plan International, ActionAid, and Tearfund, and funding from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) — commissioned Humentum to support a due diligence passporting initiative through a consultancy project. The first phase was a global review of what reform efforts have been tried, what has worked, and what stops harmonized approaches from translating into practice. This report is the output of that review.
It’s a practical evidence base for anyone trying to reduce due diligence burden without reducing accountability — and the companion to our case study, Easing Due Diligence Barriers, which tells the story behind the initiative.
Based on a desk review of due diligence tools, frameworks, and reform initiatives implemented globally over the past decade, this report documents efforts tested across Burkina Faso, Syria, Türkiye, and Ukraine, alongside multi-country pilots spanning Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Sudan. For each initiative, it captures the implementing actors, approach, intended purpose, method, due diligence areas covered, and lessons learned — with a full comparative matrix in the appendix.
Inside, you’ll find:
- The four broad approaches tested to reduce duplication — passporting, harmonization, standards and certification, and hybrid models — and where each works best
- Why an ActionAid and BDO review found strong alignment on 46 of 57 indicators across 26 tools, yet sustained harmonization still hasn’t been achieved in practice
- What real initiatives (Alliance2015, the Collaborative Cash Delivery Network, the Charter for Change DDPP Tool, the GFGP Standard, the Start Network, and DEC-funded pilots in Syria and Ukraine) reveal about what helps reform stick and what holds it back
- Six evidence-based findings — from reform fatigue and the risk of excluding grassroots organizations, to why technical alignment alone can’t overcome organizational barriers
- Practical recommendations for designing context-appropriate, tiered, and accompanied approaches that reduce burden without disproportionately increasing risk
The clearest lesson across every initiative reviewed is that due diligence reform is not a technical fix. Shared tools matter, but trust, leadership commitment, contextual adaptation, and clarity of purpose matter more. Passporting doesn’t make risk disappear — it reduces the burden of asking local organizations to prove themselves over and over again, often on different forms and sometimes in the middle of an emergency. Use this report to understand what has been tried, what the evidence shows, and how to design due diligence that strengthens local organizations rather than gatekeeping them.
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